First, Ashton walked over to the vending machine. Frankly, he didn't have a lot of money to spare, since he wanted to save the money he currently had for the contract. He wouldn't be earning a lot for the next while, either, because of the quest given to him by the Daughter of the Scarlet Heart.
There were still a lot of monsters he had to take down, and it would take a while. At least, he should be able to get all the materials together before he managed to clear that quest, so unless he found another way to get some coins, he shouldn't buy much.
Or rather, if there wasn't anything useful, he didn't want to buy anything in the first place. The slightly annoying part about this thing was that, apparently, it restocked itself regularly.
According to Rory, there were a few things that were constants, like those bags of magic stones, or the random cubes, but most of the potions and snacks were pretty much random.
Though it gave off that bright glow right now, even if no other electricity was working at the moment, every day at midnight, the light would turn off for five minutes. When it turned back on, the items inside would be swapped out. Apparently, the headmaster had decided to keep a log of all the items that appeared as well as their prices, which Ashton was currently holding in his hand.
"Hm... So the prices stay the same... there are some that are more common to be restocked, and others that only showed up once so far... Then again, it hasn't been that long yet, so you can't really say for certain," Ashton muttered to himself, picking at his lower lip as he looked at the note.
One of the potions that hadn't shown up again was the 'Rabbit's Foot' potion. It did seem extremely potent, all things considered. It made sense if it was a little more rare.
As for the other items... it seemed like they prioritised trying out new potions and foods, and they wrote down the effects, too. Healing and recovery potions were the most common here, focusing on different aspects of healing. There were some rations that apparently made you feel full for longer even if you ate just a little bit of it. Ever since they figured that out, every chance they got, they would buy those. Luckily they were relatively common.
But there seemed to be some overall patterns with things, and the brands gave some good clues, too.
Anything with the name 'Dr. Fantasmo' had something to do with mana or magic in general. One time there was something that sounded like a mana potion in there, and of course there were those magic stone bags.
Chocolates tended to be things that gave certain resistances, like the 'Devil's Kiss' or the 'Yeti's Hug', giving heat or cold resistance respectively.
Everything from 'GSQ Corp' was a slime. Literally everything. There were those soda slimes, but also another type of slime called the 'Candy Slime'. There were a few different kinds, or flavours, that popped up, but they were a sort of solidified, crystal-like slime. Basically slime rock-candy, as far as Ashton understood.
There were a few other brands, but for now, Ashton was mostly interested in these ones. He had plenty of magic stones for now, and should look through the ones he got from the quest reward first before buying more, so he passed on that.
The slimes were useful for potion-making, but that was low-priority at the moment. Plus, he might be able to get his hands on some better potion-making materials once he contracted a salesman, so saving his money for that wasn't a bad idea.
However, there was a chocolate that seemed interesting. 'Viper's Embrace'. It had a green and purple wrapping, and Ashton knew almost immediately what the effect of this should be.
Well, just in case, he had the Pen of Insight inspect it first, and learned exactly what he needed to.
Viper's Embrace Chocolate
Grade - Uncommon
Price - 500 Gold
Weight - 150g
A chocolate bar infused with deeply poisonous energies. However, instead of harming whoever eats it, it actually provides temporary resistance again poisons.
Provides a 25% boost to poison resistance for 1 Hour per 30g consumed. Does not stack.
"Perfect, exactly what I need," Ashton said, grabbing a large coin from his status window. 500 gold was a lot, but even just a 25% boost was great and could help Ashton out a ton.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
His next opponents were lizardmen; any sort of magic or elemental affinities they had helped them be as deadly as possible. Generally, this was centred around poison. A lot of lizardmen carried poison darts or coated their weapons in poison before a fight. There were even those that were capable of using poison magics. Even the xantusi, who had a deep affinity for the shadows, mostly used that affinity for sneak attacks, so that they could poison their target as soon as the fight even began.
Poison was the game for lizardmen, and Ashton had to be prepared. He had prepared plenty of antidotes, put together some cigarettes and bundles for the salamander to diffuse into smoke, and now with this lucky piece of chocolate, he was able to go and take those guys on.
He stepped away from the vending machine and walked toward the gymnasium, his last stop before leaving.
Almost immediately when he walked in, he spotted Sean and Joey. This time, they weren't trying to defend Millie anymore. They didn't need to, either. Nobody was coming close to them, keeping their distance. Of course, except for Ashton.
"Hey, kids. How are you?" he asked, and they turned and looked up at him.
"We're good!" Joey replied, though her expression didn't quite match that.
Sean also nodded, though he didn't say anything. He just nervously looked over at Millie. She had finally woken up, and was sitting there with a blanket covering her, leaning against the wall with a pillow behind her back.
"Oh! You're here, did you manage to kill all the zombies?" she asked, shooting a broad smile at Ashton. "You better have, those guys were super creepy."
He didn't know what to say. She obviously knew what happened. Her face was pale, her eyes puffy, and she was even hiding her shoulder where her arm had been cut off with the blanket.
"Yes, they're all gone. I promise."
"Good! Good," Millie replied with an approving nod. "Hey, listen, we've got some new info for you, if you want it. We saw some new monsters running around near the school the other day. Joey?"
Millie looked at her friend, who slowly got out her notepad. She flipped it open with a shaking hand, and flipped it to a page with the drawing of a spider. A couple of the spiders must have settled down near here after Ashton killed the Broodmother. It was a good chance for some of the combatants to level up.
"They're nothing you have to worry about, but tell Rory... uhm, Mister Campbell about them latter, okay?"
"Mister Campbell? The Janitor?" Millie asked. She must have still been asleep when the message came earlier.
"Mhm. He's the new leader of this place now. The headmaster, Mister Crombe, didn't make it."
Millie's face dropped, even if just for a moment. Her eyes darted around, until she really processed what Ashton said. "So he's... gone?"
"Yes, he is."
"Okay..."
Ashton looked the girl in the face, and inwardly sighed.
"Backpacker, could you give me the staff and cloak?" he asked, and the spirit quickly popped up, handing both to Ashton. He donned the cloak over his clothes, and could immediately feel the flow of his mana change. It was like it was pumped through his body much more effectively.
"Sean, Joey, could you two give us a moment? I would like to talk to Millie alone."
The two of them looked at each other. They were confused at what was happening, but didn't say anything. They just nodded and left. Of course, Ashton drew a lot of attention, since he effectively just looked like a mage now, but that didn't matter.
He started letting his mana flow through the magic staff and let it out into the air in threads. This staff wasn't just good for summoning, but for spellcasting, too. And there was another spell that was pretty useful here. It was a lesser version of the silence that the Observer had given to Ashton and Sam before. It wouldn't be enough to stop constellations from listening in, or even particularly powerful or sensitive people, but it was enough for this place.
The magic circle was drawn into the air, and Millie stared at it with excitement. So she was able to sense magic to that degree already? Well, there was a reason why the Guardian protected her so much.
It took a few moments until the spell was complete, and Ashton carefully deployed it in this spot. It would be active for as long as Ashton provided mana to it, but it was a stationary spell, so it couldn't be moved, even if it was great to have some peace and quiet, and a private conversation.
He sat down on the ground next to Millie, as the sound of the entire world around them faded away.
"Do you want me to tell you a secret?" Ashton asked, and Millie slowly nodded her head. The way she was looking at Ashton right now could only be described as awe. "I've lost an arm before, too. A couple times, actually."
Confused, the girl looked down at Ashton's limbs. He clearly still had everything on him, though her eyes landed on the place his finger was supposed to be.
"But..."
"For a while, for a really, really long while, I was trapped by a powerful being, before all of this happened here. I would lose an arm, a leg, or even my head. Sometimes I had to stay like that for a while, other times I had them back before I knew it. But every single time, it was scary. It was terrifying," Ashton explained.
Millie swallowed nervously. Her mouth opened; she wanted to protest, and tell Ashton that he was a liar. After all, how was this possible? But she couldn't. Ashton was using real magic, not just those weird skills that other people were learning. Real magic.
"These things are unfair. It hurts, it's painful. Being looked at the way everyone here is looking at you makes things just sting that much more," Ashton said, smiling. He looked at Millie's, which had just been clutching her blanket this entire time. "And it's going to continue being unfair. It's going to keep hurting, and get more painful. All of this. This entire new world we now live in. There's not a lot that I can do about that, sadly. But there is one thing that I can, and will promise to you."
He slowly grabbed his cloak and used it to cover up Millie's body. This cloak was made for hiding other beings within it. "For as long as I'm around, I'm going to try and give you, and everyone else here, a place for you to feel like you're the kid you were just last week."
Millie was confused and startled, just sitting in the darkness of the cloak. "What are you doing?"
Ashton smiled, though Millie couldn't see.
"You're hidden. Nobody can see or hear you right now. Not your friends, nor anyone else in this gym," he said. "You don't need to keep smiling right now."
Almost immediately, as if this permission was the exact thing she needed, Millie started sobbing.
She clung to Ashton's clothes, leaning onto him. She screamed and shivered and cried, while Ashton just sat there. It might be delaying him bit, but that was fine.
If Ashton couldn't stay and comfort a child, why was he even trying to save the world at all?